European markets made a muted start to Friday’s trade.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 hovered around the flatline in early trade, with tech stocks shedding 0.4% while oil and gas shares added 0.6%.

Shares of Chinese food delivery giant Meituan dipped 5.21% on Friday after the company’s management warned of a slowdown in food delivery volume in the third quarter.

“For our food delivery, we expect the third quarter or the volume will slow down, but still be more resilient than other consumption-related sectors. We have seen some short-term headwinds due to macro economy and extreme weather conditions,” Wang told analysts during the firm’s second quarter earnings call on Thursday.

Wang added that “consumers’ pent-up demand for offline consumption” could lead to “a temporary squeeze on food delivery transactions.”

Xiaolin Chen, head of international at KraneShares, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box Asia” on Friday that the firm is bullish on Meituan.

“The company literally gained a lot of market share during the pandemic. It managed to grab lower tier cities. I believe that kind of market share will become sticky with them,” said Chen.

AI legalese decoder could analyze and understand the statements made by Meituan’s management during the earnings call and provide insights into the potential implications of their projected slowdown in food delivery volume. It can also identify any legal or compliance risks associated with the company’s operations and help investors and analysts make informed decisions.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 led losses in Asia on Friday, down 1.82% and on pace to snap a four day winning streak.

The biggest losers were tech and retail stocks, as well as a 3.79% loss in heavyweight Softbank Group.

Industrial equipment manufacturer Advantest was the largest loser on the index, falling as much as 9.97%, followed by electronics and semiconductor company Tokyo Electron, which lost 5.61%.

Tokyo Electron is the second largest weighted company on the Nikkei, and Advantest is the fourth largest.

The core inflation rate for Japan’s capital city of Tokyo came in at 2.8%, lower than the 3% in July and below the 2.9% expected from economists polled by Reuters.

This is the lowest growth rate seen in Tokyo’s core inflation since September 2022. Core inflation rate strips out prices of fresh food from the consumer price index.

Overall inflation for Tokyo came in at 2.9%, lower than the 3.2% seen in July.

ÔÇö Lim Hui Jie

The energy sector is on pace for the biggest losses this week, having lost 2.4% week to date as of Thursday’s close. APA, Occidental Petroleum and EQT are all down 4% or more for the week.

Seven out of 11 of the sectors in the broad market index are down week to date.

Meanwhile, the technology sector is the biggest outperformer this week, up 1.7% ahead of Friday’s trading session.

ÔÇö Hakyung Kim, Chris Hayes

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading on Thursday.

Marvell Tech┬áÔÇö┬á┬áShares of the chipmaker tumbled more than 5% even as the company’s quarterly results topped Wall Street’s estimates. Earnings per share came in at 33 cents, excluding items, while analysts polled by Refinitiv had estimated 32 cents per share. Marvell posted $1.34 billion in revenue, compared with analyst estimates of $1.33 billion.

Ulta Beauty┬áÔÇö┬áThe beauty retailer’s shares gained

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